what is your must do TS and why?

kitkat4622

DIS Veteran
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Mar 13, 2014
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It is myself and my 17 year old grandson going to disney. We have been twice before. I am looking for new TS places, what are your "must do" TS and why. We enjoy meeting characters if that makes a difference.
we previously did:
Ohana
Tusker House
Crystal Palace
Garden Grill
Hollywood & Vine
T Rex
Rainforest Cafe
 
Not sure if they are all must dos now but:

Chef Mickeys-3 years ago if I saw the crab claws first I would not have eaten anything else. But my kids are all Disney adults so I can think of better ways to spend $$$$.

Trex-ate there as we were passing thru via the auto train a few years ago (right after the aquarium busted) and we thought the food was better then the rainforest.

Whispering canyon cafe-kids love it, we will go there again since it's less expensive then CM. DH loves the skillet!

We mainly Eat at CS. I am thinking of going back to 50s prime time as my kids have never been and I need to eat the pizza at via Napoli!
 
We love Sci-Fi. No characters but very cool atmosphere. Our DDs love the burgers and shakes here. Be Our Guest is also tops for atmosphere. Our favorite meal is probably lunch, but that is CS and doesn't have any characters. Dinner is good, too, and you can meet the Beast. Another favorite of ours is Via Napoli. Again, no characters but the giant pizzas and wall of ovens that fire bake the pizza are fun. The pizzas here are a little different than your usual pizza and we think they're delicious.
 
Our must do is Shula's. Fabulous steaks and sides. We hate character dining. (Because of the lousy food and screaming kids, not because of the characters.)
 

We tried Portobellos for the first and second time. We will definitely go there again!! It might sound funny to say about an italian place, but their Flat Iron steak is AMAZING, and their 1/2 Wood cooked chicken was great.

50's Prime Time Dining at HS was a lot of fun and the food was great too.

We also ate at Minnie's Holiday Dining at Hollywood and Vine at HS. It was lots of thanksgiving type holiday food buffet style. When I learned it was buffet, my expectations dropped, figuring on lukewarm food etc.. but the food was hot, great taste, plenty of it, plus there were characters too which was fun.

We also ate at Chef Mickey's for breakfast. Again, being that it is buffet my hopes weren't all that high, but it was probably one of the best breakfast buffets I've ever had anywhere. Food was hot and never ran out and it tasted great too!!
 
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Typically for us it's Ohana but this past summer we tried The Boathouse at Disney Springs and it was EXCELLENT. That may be heading to the top of our list if future trips show it to be consistently good.
 
Teppan Edo
Via Napoli
Chef Mickeys
Sci-Fi

The first two for the delicious food, the 2nd two because my son loves them.
 
I really don't have a must do but the ones we always want to do are Boma and Biergarten.
 
Our must do's over the years have evolved.
Ohana dinner used to be one of them. Don't get me wrong, we still like it, and do on occasion. It used to scream Disney so much so that it was our go to at start of every trip. We tended to not do a park on arrival, so getting in resort, unpacking, maybe grocery shopping didn't exactly set the tone for a WDW trip. But Ohana, which is special and unique in itself, watching the fireworks, etc. really did it for us.
50s PTC has ben a must do for us since our 1st visit in 1999, sometimes we even go twice on a 2 week trip. In fact, back in the day we may have eat at Ohana twice. I think we have missed 50s on only 1 trip in all these yrs. The food is very good, not fancy, but they do a very good job at making comfort food a step above your standard restaurant comfort food. The atmosphere and the antics all envelope the experience. And you have to save room for a PB&J milkshake!
San Angel Inn is our other go to. I think the only time we didn't eat there was in 99. DW loves Mexican food, and when we 1st started going to SAI, it was more in line with Tex Mex, which was what we were used too. But time has changed that, it is now more authentic than ever. They still have a couple dishes that your local tex mex may serve, but they don't stick to that as tried and true. Food is tasty, atmosphere IMO is tops on property(Be Our Guest now surpasses this very obvious reasons)and you don't feel rushed.
 
After our last trip, I was asked to rebook a few places:
1) Tusker house breakfast
2) Kona Cafe
3) 1900 Park Fare - we love the character interaction there!
4) HDDR
 
My favorite character meal is Crystal Palace as of right now, but for non-character meals I love Olivia's at Old Key West! It's great food and a very peaceful way to start off a more relaxed day at Disney!
 
Our last two trips, (One with kids and one without), we have enjoyed Rose and Crown. Excellent food, even better service, and if you time it right you can watch Illuminations while sipping a hot cup of tea.
 
We haven't done a trip without Crystal Palace. We always have a good experience here. Bonus that I love Pooh, the restaurant is very pretty, it is inside MK.
Sci Fi is another must do if we are going to DHS. Just love the ambiance.

I also really like lunch at San Angel Inn, dinner at Raglan Road, and dinner at Yachtsman
 
50's Prime Time Cafe - It is not character dining, but it has a fun atmosphere and the food is really good. We eat there on every visit. I always get the fried chicken dinner (very good). Great for kids and adults.
 
We don't do character dining and don't do buffets so can't help you there but we do have a few we repeat. Normally, we like to try different TS restaurants each trip and not repeat anything, it's just more fun for us to try different things. We do tend to repeat HBD at HS because we love the atmosphere there, Spice Roads at Epcot WS because we like Med. food. We've never had a really horrible bad meal at WS in Epcot although San Angel in Mexico has come off our list. It used to be a must do, love the atmosphere but the last few times we tried it the service wasn't up to snuff and the food just o.k. We go across the way to the other TS in Mexico now. We liked Skipper's Canteen in MK, the atmosphere was fun, the food portions large enough for us to share (two adults) and the food different enough to be fun. I discovered the Nomad Lounge in AK last trip and got a slider plate from there, love the atmosphere and the food was great. I'm assuming since it's attached to Tiffins the food there would be just as good.
 
Tusker House breakfast is a total must....the food is awesome, you have to try the jungle juice, and it also has great character interaction.
Boma Dinner Buffett - no character interaction, but the food is great. A little different, but nothing to crazy
Ohana's - awesome food, delicious dessert, give the Lapu Lapu a try it won't disappoint.
Mama Melroses - very yummy italian food...and the chocolate torte dessert is to die for!
 
Crystal Palace- DD's favorite character on earth is Piglet and there's no where else in the World to see that elusive little sow
 
We have a few...

Via Napoli - it's our son's favorite (though we are all big fans). He especially loves the arancini appetizer.

Chef Mickey's - our daughter's favorite (we let them pick one restaurant each). I've found the food better recently than it was a handful of years ago.

Tusker House (breakfast) - the variety and the food is good, and...jungle juice! Love getting an early ADR here, and hitting the safari right after.

'Ohana used to be on this list until they removed the pork skewers, although they still have the best dessert around.

Le Cellier was on the list as a 1 TS credit, but certainly not as a signature.
 
Sci Fi was the only place I was interested in eating at for our HS day and it did not disappoint. Atmosphere is adorable!! Our server was amazing, constant refills on drinks, to go cups for the adults, and everything was hot and tasty and huge. The manager came to check around on guests too. Sure it's a burger place but we loved cooling off and resting our feet without having to lift a finger.
 


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